ugh her
semi-transparent crape robe, she made many a young man's heart glow with
a strange new feeling, or burn with pangs of jealousy.

Among the priests that often passed by the tea-house on their way to the
monastery, were some who were young and handsome.

It was the rule of the monastery that none of the bonzes should drink
sake (wine) eat fish or meat, or even stop at the tea-houses to talk with
women. But one young bonze named "Lift-the-Kettle" (after a passage in
the Sanscrit classics) had rigidly kept the rules. Fish had never passed
his mouth; and as for sake, he did not know even its taste. He was very
studious and diligent. Every day he learned ten new Chinese characters.
He had already read several of the sacred sutras, had made a good
beginning in Sanskrit, knew the name of every idol in the temple of the
3,333 images in Kioto, had twice visited the sacred shrine of the
Capital, and had uttered the prayer "Namu mi[=o] ho ren ge ki[=o],"
("Glory be to the sacred lotus of the law"), counting it on his rosary,
five hundred thousand times. For sanctity and learning he had no peer
among the young neophytes of the bonzerie.

Alas for "Lift-the-Kettle!". One day, after returning from a visit to a
famous shrine in the Kuanto, (Eastern Japan), as he was passing the
tea-house, he caught sight of Kiyohime, (the "lady" or "princess" Kiyo),
and from that moment his pain of heart began. He returned to his bed of
mats, but not to sleep. For days he tried to stifle his passion, but his
heart only smouldered away like an incense-stick.

Before many days he made a pretext for again passing the house.
Hopelessly in love, without waiting many days he stopped and entered the
tea-house.

His call for refreshments was answered by Kiyohime herself!

As fire kindles fire, so priest and maiden were now consumed in one flame
of love. To shorten a long story, "Lift-the-Kettle" visited the inn
oftener and oftener, even stealing out at night to cross the river and
spend the silent hours with his love.

So passed several months, when suddenly a change come over the young
bonze. His conscience began to trouble him for breaking his vows. In the
terrible conflict between principle and passion, the soul of the priest
was tossed to and fro like the feathered seed-ball of a shuttlecock.

But conscience was the stronger, and won.

He resolved to drown his love and break off his connection with the girl.
To do it suddenly, would bring